An interesting report with some curious photographs showing a Spitfire of the RAF carrying beer kegs under the wings. I've never seen this. Can anyone tell what the purpose of it ? To see these curious and unbelievable photos, visit the link below:

Not looked at the link, but beer was flown from England to the squadrons (and troops) behind the beach head in Normandy soon after the D-Day invasion, carried by Spitfires, using either normal beer kegs or drop tanks. Italeri issued a 1/48th scale kit including the beer kegs a year or two back.

On March 13, 1943, the New York Times reported that American fliers stationed in Britain had discovered an ingenious way of making ice cream while on duty. A story titled “Flying Fortresses Double as Ice-Cream Freezers” disclosed that the airmen “place prepared ice-cream mixture in a large can and anchor it to the rear gunner’s compartment of a Flying Fortress. It is well shaken up and nicely frozen by flying over enemy territory at high altitudes.”

I think it was the 4th FG (or possibly the 56th FG) who also did this, by filling drop tanks with the mixture and doing a quick climb to altitude and then a rapid descent back to base. No doubt word got around, and probably other units did the same thing.

That's a purpose close to my heart, and I would have participated had I been there. The main trick was to have people ready to drink it when the plane landed ... and not draw the attention of the "old man" at the same time.

A great thirst attacked British troops rushing emergency landing strips to completion in the dust of Normandy. Thinking of luckier comrades guzzling in country estaminets and town bistros, the runway builders began to grouse. They wanted beer. They got it. Rocket-firing Typhoons, before going on to shoot up Nazis, landed on the runways with auxiliary fuel tanks full of beer. Swarms of the thirsty gathered round with enamel mugs. The first tank-fulls tasted bad because of the tank linings; this flavor was overcome by chemical means and later loads were delicious. Just like the corner pub at home.

Click to expand...

Also, shortly after D-Day, P-47s were ferrying ice cream across the channel in drop tanks, too.

There's plenty of stories about the USAAF and USMC that chilled beer by various means (fighters, bombers) in the PTO, and I'm sure commonwealth AFs did the same.

That's a purpose close to my heart, and I would have participated had I been there. The main trick was to have people ready to drink it when the plane landed ... and not draw the attention of the "old man" at the same time.

Click to expand...

tell me you think that would have been a problem?? you know fighter pilots...killing beer was never a problem they had to work around...and the old man was the one who probably got the first draft poured!

In the case of the RAF Spitfires (and others) carrying the beer, the purpose was to get it from Hampshire, England, to Normandy, France, whether cool, warm or insipid.
British beer (especially real ales) was never cooled, until about the mid 1970s, and Britain had a somewhat dubious, World-wide reputation for warm beer !

Since they're from Brazil, it's entirely possible to be a little removed from the quirks of the war that the commonwealth and he U.S. would have been familiar with.

I've even had several conversations with people here in the states that had never heard of "high altitude cooling", or that U.S. carriers had ice cream machines (and at least one submarine - with one stolen from a carrier) during WWII.

And I was called a liar and a dumbass for mentioning that a Skyraider dropped a toilet in combat as part of a warload. That almost cost them a night in ER, too...

Since they're from Brazil, it's entirely possible to be a little removed from the quirks of the war that the commonwealth and he U.S. would have been familiar with.

I've even had several conversations with people here in the states that had never heard of "high altitude cooling", or that U.S. carriers had ice cream machines (and at least one submarine - with one stolen from a carrier) during WWII.

And I was called a liar and a dumbass for mentioning that a Skyraider dropped a toilet in combat as part of a warload. That almost cost them a night in ER, too...

Click to expand...

I guess so. It's just that I've known this for so long, having first read about Spitfires toting beer kegs across The Channel way back in the Seventies or early Eighties. But then pampa14 is only trawling for blog hits and never joins the discussions he starts.

I guess so. It's just that I've know this for so long, having first read about Spitfires toting beer kegs across The Channel way back in the Seventies or early Eighties. But then pampa14 is only trawling for blog hits and never joins the discussions he starts.

Chris

Click to expand...

So aparently, you missed the part where I got into an argument with a fellow American over the fact that a toilet was dropped from a hard-point in combat. Not everyone is a walking encyclopedia of lesser-known facts of war.

And here's some interesting "did-you-knows":
Did you know that pampa has never caused any trouble here on the forum?
Did you know that several members of the forum have links to their own pages in their sigs?
Did you know that following a member and harassing them in their posts/threads is called Trolling?

And I should point out that his posts always lead to great and informative discussions, often times leading to learning new things...

Staff MemberModerator

So aparently, you missed the part where I got into an argument with a fellow American over the fact that a toilet was dropped from a hard-point in combat. Not everyone is a walking encyclopedia of lesser-known facts of war.

And here's some interesting "did-you-knows":
Did you know that pampa has never caused any trouble here on the forum?
Did you know that several members of the forum have links to their own pages in their sigs?
Did you know that following a member and harassing them in their posts/threads is called Trolling?

And I should point out that his posts always lead to great and informative discussions, often times leading to learning new things...

Click to expand...

Here is your toilet I just remember reading about a pilot that liked his chocolate bars frozen so every time he had to test flight his fighter after maintenance he would have his crew chief put the chocolate bars in the ammo bays of the fighter to chill at high altitude to eat when he came down.

Staff MemberModerator

I forget what squadron but one of the B-25 squadrons in the Pacific where running low on bombs so they used what ever they could to drop from hand grenades to bottles. They even went so far as to drop the cooks kitchen sink on the Japs.

Seriously, I doubt much damage from rifle caliber casings. But a 37 mm case might be a different story of falling from a 350 mph fighter at 1,000+ feet. I bet even a 20 mm case falling at terminal velocity would hurt.

I know of one actual incident where a jet fighter flying at 18,500 feet was struck by falling ice and the canopy shattered. They landed without incident, but the ice had to come from a passing airliner above, since it was a single piece and not an "ice shower" as is big hail. The other aircraft in formation encountered no ice and that was the only hit.